Why are DUers so obsessed by John McCain?????

[Leilani]

As surely as the sun rises in the east, & sets in the west, there will be several McCain threads running, obsessing over his motivations, his psyche, his mental stability, his future, his past,his public life, his private life!

McCain is fascinating, because he is truly unique in politics: an honest man. He says what he thinks, therefore, he makes enemies on the Right on some days, & on the Left on other days. He drives his party crazy, & disappoints Liberals, who think he is one of them.

Folks, McCain is a self-described Barry Goldwater Republican, who loves his party. He is also a Reformer, like his hero, Teddy Roosevelt. There has never been any reason to think he would jump parties; that was all media needing a story.

Currently, Republicans are foaming-at-the mouth because he is friends with John Kerry & has defended him against smears. Democrats are equally livid because he is campaigning for his arch-enemy, GW Bush.

Oh, the speculation!! There must be some deep, dark, hidden secret in his past that the Bushies are blackmailing him with. Or, maybe he has been promised Sec of State. No, wait! Dick Cheney will be dumped & McCain will replace him on the ticket. How can he humiliate himself like this?

Folks, George Bush did not speak to McCain since the 2000 election.
But he realized his re-election was in trouble & ASKED his arch-enemy to campaign with him. Bush needed McCain, not the other way around.

And what politician has been mentioned MORE by the Democratic Party & Kerry Campaign to attack George Bush? You guessed it: John McCain.

From his heroism as a POW for 5 1/2 years, to his bravery on the Forrestal, during the worst fire in Naval History, he is a legend to many people. What makes it more dramatic is that he never speaks of these incidents, except to praise the bravery of others.

In conclusion, 4 years ago, John McCain ran for President on the Straight Talk Express. Nothing was censored; media had complete access to him at all times on all issues. The reporters would ask him about France when they needed a rest; they knew he would talk for at least an hour, & they could doze.

If John McCain was running for President today, he would beat George Bush and John Kerry. But he cannot get a nomination, because he does not play any game but his own.

[JI7]

1. some don't like him because of what he said about Chelsea

when she was a kid.

[barb162]

2. what did he say about Chelsea

I think the media is interrested in what McCain says and thus he gets in the news a lot and also because the swiftie stuff is so all over the place and he was military, the media then interviews him more and then we comment, and it is a circle.

[Leilani]

11. He apologized countless times

worked with Prez Clinton on lots of stuff

& is friendly with Hillary...they just got back from a foreign trip together.

He was wrong, he knew it, & apologized.

That is the point I was trying to make...he makes mistakes & screws up like everybody, but he ADMITS it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. A few DUers are obsessed with John McCain and even wanted him

as Kerry's running mate, but an even larger number of DUers said, in so many words, "No way in hell" whenever the topic was brought up, as it was distressingly often.

[jonnyblitz]

6. I could NOT believe that one!

:wow:

[NEOBuckeye]

4. McCain couldn't beat Karl Rove

The racial slur/smear directed against him by Rove in SC for his adopted child stopped McCain's candidacy dead in its' tracks.

The only way anyone can beat the Rove/Bush/Cheney machine is to nail them as brutally and ferociously as they smear their opponents. It's a lesson that, sadly, John Kerry and his campaign officials have failed to learn. And time is running out.

[Julien Sorel]

9. McCain actually started the negative

campaigning in SC. Of course, that doesn't fit with the stereotype here of tough guy/victim, with nothing in between.

[Leilani]

12. Sorry, not true.

He put up the first negative ad to rebut what was going on in S. Carolina.

Then he looked negative; Bush tactics were all 3rd party & underground.

McCain had WON Hew Hampshire in a huge upset; he had no need to go negative.

[Julien Sorel]

16. Sorry, absolutely true.

Following up on his 18-point Granite State victory, McCain opened the two-man Palmetto State contest with negative ads that compared Bush's integrity to President Clinton's. The Texas governor responded with similar ads that questioned McCain's conservative credentials and attacked his Senate record.

After polls showed McCain's approval rating slipping, he abruptly shifted strategy and pulled the ads off the air with a promise not to run negative spots in South Carolina again.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/02/19/campaign.wrap/

[Leilani]

18. You have just proven my point

I SAID McCain ran the 1st negative ad, because of what was being done to him offscreen.

The 1st negative was Bush rally for Vets, which he paid for, where McCain was slimed.

CNN is a joke resource.

Check Elizabeth Drew in New Yorker.

Newsweek huge expose.

Google Lindsay Graham Senate...SC

NEVER use Bush talking points...think you would know that by now.

[Julien Sorel]

20. I'm unclear on how exactly I proved your point.

But whatever. I'm also unclear on what Bush talking point I used -- if Bush says the sky is blue, is that now a Bush talking point, and am I no longer allowed to say the sky is blue?

[oasis]

23. McCain screwed up with the fundies when he equated Falwell and

Robertson with Farrakhan.

[madrchsod]

5. goldwater

in his time was far right but as soon as the bush klan took over goldwater became a moderate republican much like mc cain. he may be a republican but he`s a throw back to the old school. maybe you younger du`ers may not remember the days when there was at least civility between senate members..no one back then told someone to go fuck themselves on the senate floor...

[featherman]

7. Sorry...McCain leaves me cold

I don't see the attraction. He's a moderate to right Republican and would have been considered a right wing zany in the party of Hatfield, Rockefeller, Javits, and Dirkson. I guess the GOP has moved so far right that he is now considered moderate. He occasionally takes a principled stand ('for the good of the party"), I guess, and so the media pundits go gaga over him and get all dewy eyed and fawning at Washington cocktail parties. He certainly does get good press.

[Placebo]

8. He's Clearly Unpricipled If He Supports W.

So I have no idea why the hell democrats like him so much.

[enigmatic]

10. McCain and Goldwater were not friends

I lived in Phoenix a number of years; McCain was one of those in the state GOP who didn't appreciate Goldwater's stance on gays in the military.

Goldwater was someone who truly was a maverick; this is a great interview written at the end of his life that explains this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/may98/goldwater072894.htm

[A_Possum]

13. I think they're gonna dump Cheney for him this week

I hope I'm wrong.

[LimpingLib]

14. Amazing that the same people who claim to be anti-war...

... also will be the first to support McCain.


This is a guy who in 2000, when no other politicians were even talking much about invading Iraq , advocated attacking and overthrowing several Mid-East nations.

If McCain becomes president , and I predict he will in 2009 , then war with China by 2016 is inevitable.

Want war and endless poverty in our nation and the world over?

Vote McCain!!!

[ContinentalOp]

15. It turns my stomach...

...when I read people here saying how they "just lost all respect for McCain" or "how could he do" this or that. The guy is a fucking republican. End of story. He deserves no respect to begin with. I'm supposed to be shocked by a picture of him hugging Bush? Call me naive or myopic but for my intents and purposes they are one and the same.

[EST]

17. The real problem is everybody thinks McCain is his friend.

I mean, after all, he seems reasonable, and any reasonable person has to see things the way I do. Then when he fucks you and leaves, or this is the way it looks, the perfidy is so more egregious. We dislike those we feel have betrayed us more intensely than those we never had a reason to need to trust in the first place.

[fknobbit]

25. Applause coupled with standing ovation!!!!!!!

[amjsjc]

19. Not to berate the obvious, but...

McCain is a Republican. He's a moderate Republican, which means he'll listen to reason a good amount of the time (for example he was one of two or three Rep Senators to vote against the gay marraige amendment) but if you expect him to be a Democrat then you're going to be disappointed. (And yes he's campaigning for W; politics is a team sport, and the team he's on is the GOP...)
Also, for the record, I do respect him, since he does embody certain virtues (honesty, politeness) which seem to be lacking in politics these days...

[ContinentalOp]

21. Re: Honesty, politeness...

Oh good, he's honestly a pro-war, free-market, conservative. I'm so relieved that he's going to privatize and militarize the world in a polite, down-to-earth manner :)

[Bluebear]

22. "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?"

"Because Janet Reno is her real father!"- John McCain in a speech to Republicans.

[Piperay]

24. UGH, I didn't recall that but I must

have I blocked it out because it is such an 'ugly' statement to make. x(

[Bluebear]

26. And very revealing to me.

That it came out of his mouth as entertainment totally betrays him, no matter what kind of makeover people want to give him.